Based on the novel by Alessandro Baricco. Sei Ashina, Michael Pitt, Toni Bertorelli, Keira Knightley, Kenneth Welsh, Martha Burns, Alfred Molina, Michael Golding, Carlo Cecchi, Chiara Stampone. Herve Joncour is a married silkworm smuggler in 19th century France. He travels to Japan to collect his clandestine cargo after his original shipment was destroyed. While in Japan, he spots a beautiful Japanese woman who is the concubine of a local baron. He immediately becomes obsessed. Without speaking the same language, they communicate through letters until war intervenes. Their unrequited love persists however, and Herve's wife Helene begins to suspect something is going on with her husband.

Reviews and Notes

Music and Video Summary -> Francois Girard's adaptation of Alessandro Baricco's novel Silk stars Michael Pitt as a young Frenchman who travels to Japan at the request of a wealthy silkworm magnate who asks him to smuggle back some new worms. The mission succeeds, and this allows the man to live in great comfort with his wife (Keira Knightley). After a few years, they are unable to conceive a child, a situation that leads to the man taking on a lover during his subsequent visits to Japan. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

$a Herve Joncour is a married silkworm smuggler in 19th century France. He travels to Japan to collect his clandestine cargo after his original shipment was destroyed. While in Japan, he spots a beautiful Japanese woman who is the concubine of a local baron. He immediately becomes obsessed. Without speaking the same language, they communicate through letters until war intervenes. Their unrequited love persists however, and Herve's wife Helene begins to suspect something is going on with her husband.